For example, an opening/closing body such as a lid is openably/closably mounted to an opening portion formed in a stationary body such as a glove box of an automobile. Further, there is provided a locking device for locking the lid in a closed state with respect to the opening portion, and for bringing the lid into an opened state from the opening portion.
As this kind of locking device, there is known a locking device including a lid openably/closably mounted to an opening portion, a rod mounted to the lid so as to be slidable, and a return spring that biases a distal end of the rod in a direction to protrude toward a concave portion on an inner surface of the opening portion. However, in this locking device, upon closure of the lid, the rod fits into the concave after it temporarily retracts, that is, after a tapered portion formed at the back surface side of the distal end of the rod collides against the circumference of the opening portion and slides thereon. Thus, there may arise a problem of collision noise caused by the rod colliding against the circumference of the opening portion.
In order to solve the above-described problem, Patent Document 1 describes a vehicular storage device that includes an opening/closing member, a concave portion provided to an interior member, a rod passing through the concave portion, a return spring biasing the rod in a direction to fit into the concave portion, one pin that prevents the rod from returning to the state of fitting into the concave portion after the rod is pushed out from the concave portion against the biasing force of the return spring to move the opening/closing member toward an open position, and a pin biasing spring that biases the pin from the opening/closing member in a direction of penetrating into a moving track of the rod.
In the above-described vehicular storage device, in a state where the opening/closing member closes the interior member, the pin is biased by the pin biasing spring to be brought into elastically contact with the interior member while the distal end of the rod fits into the concave portion of the interior member, and thus the opening/closing member is locked in a closed state. When an operating member is operated in this state, the distal end of the rod is pulled from the concave portion against the biasing force of the return spring, and the opening/closing member is opened from the interior member. At this time, while the rod is pushed outward by the biasing force of the return spring, a convex portion provided to the rod engages into a cylinder portion on a base end of the pin to restrict an outward-protruding amount of the rod. Thus, a lapping tab between the distal end of the rod and the inner surface of the interior member upon closure of the opening/closing member can be reduced, and a sliding-contact noise can be reduced.